Law and Order: SVU Season 14 Review “Beautiful Frame” – A Conspiracy of Evil

There’s nothing more despicable than a rapist in a position of power. In this week’s episode of Law and Order: SVU, “Beautiful Frame,” one such man managed to wedge himself into the DA’s office in neighboring Suffolk county and proceeded to nearly get away with murder by framing one of his rape victims.

Since the original rape took place in Manhattan, SVU got involved on behalf of the victim after she was arrested for supposedly murdering her boyfriend. It quickly became clear to them and their DA that the girl was being framed by her rapist, a CI for the Suffolk DA. The cards were stacked against her in Suffolk, but the Manhattan DA was able to hold his own trial for the murder as…um…the gun was procured there? I don’t know; that part kind of lost me. I never knew that two separate DA’s offices could try two different people for one crime.

But, they did, and thanks to the fact that the Manhattan detectives are the only police force in New York that can find their asses in the dark, they were able to uncover the frame job, get the blackmailed witnesses to recant, and take down the bad guy.

I have to admit, this episode was a let down. We were promised a deep-seeded conspiracy, but all we got was one charismatic a-hole and a really blind DA (played by Jane Kaczmarek). I was expecting a much more intricate plot, especially since Kaczmarek is such a dynamic actress. I feel like she was really under-utilized here.

One of the things that has always annoyed me about SVU is that one week can be chock full of back story details about the detectives and the next week can be totally devoid of anything personal. This week was one of the off weeks. There was certainly no hints about the identity of Benson’s mystery Christmas date that caused so much speculation after last week’s belated episode. The general consensus seems to be that it’s not Stabler…but why would they go to such lengths to hide the guy’s face if it was just someone random or someone we’ve seen her with before?

Ah well. The world may never know. That how SVU rolls.

What did you think about the episode? Let me know below! And remember you can always follow me on Twitter @krieli1 so you never miss a review.

About The Author

Born and raised in Florida, but currently living in Los Angeles, Kristen is an aspiring television writer who is willing to give any TV show a chance, unless it involves real wives. When she’s not flipping channels, she can be found either reading a good, old-fashioned bodice ripper, discussing the failures of George Lucas with her friends over cherry pie at Mel’s Diner or trying to round up one or more of her Star Trek RPG players. She’s a proud member of the Romance Writers of America and hopes to finish one of her novels someday.

From a long-time fan. The episode on Jan. 9, 2013 was the worst example of background noise over dialog. It got louder and louder as it neared the end and we nearly missed all the final parts. Please don’t let any one tell you that this “music” makes it better for anyone. You should go on line and google background noise on TV and read the the thousands of critical comments about this. No wonder the fans are leaving. Please fire the experts that put noise over dialog. They are all crazy to promote this. Thanks Wayne Bolick,

Tulipsnwindows

I don’t like the new D.A. He brings nothing to the show for me.

I actually didn’t mind the episode. I expected more conspiracy stuff too.

http://www.facebook.com/randi.spencer.3 Randi Spencer

The preview made me think that the DA was actually part of the conspiracy, not just blind to her PI’s corruption.

Chris1215tine

One of the things that I like about SVU is when they put the dates up they are not usually that far behind “real time”. This week the dates were showing as December 12 and I think the last date was December 17. This makes this show one week behind the one on TV last week which was obviously Christmas Eve. So in terms of back stories and personal issues it would obviously be out of alignment. Annoying! I hate it when shows air in the wrong order.

Otherwise it was a so, so episode. Thank you for reviewing though always appreciated.